CENTRAL ASIA

PROTESTERS BURN DOWN KYRGYZ POLICE HEADQUARTERS

MOSCOW – Protesters rallying against the Kyrgyz president, Askar A. Akayev, burned down police headquarters yesterday in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Jalal-Abad, raising tensions in a country considered key to American hopes for democracy in Central Asia.

The attack on the police building came in response to predawn action yesterday by special police units who briefly took back control of a regional administration office that had been occupied by demonstrators since early March. A crowd estimated at about 20,000 soon recaptured the governor’s office and then marched on the police building, freeing protesters detained there and setting it on fire, witnesses said. Protesters also briefly took over the airport and used trucks to dump soil and gravel on its runway, in an effort to prevent the government from flying in security reinforcements. The police who drove demonstrators out of the governor’s office yesterday morning were believed by protesters to have been flown in from Bishkek, the capital.

Most observers said they did not know about any deaths in the clashes, and a presidential spokesman, Abdyl Segizbayev, said there were none. But the Russian news agency Interfax, in a brief report quoting an anonymous police source, said that up to 10 people may have died.

– Los Angeles Times

MIDDLE EAST

PILGRIMS FLEE VILLAGE AFTER BOMBING KILLS 46

FATEHPUR, Pakistan – Frightened pilgrims crammed into buses leaving a remote village in southwestern Pakistan yesterday after a bombing at a Shiite shrine left 46 dead, and relatives sifted bloodied caps and shoes for signs of loved ones.

The blast Saturday night prompted anger and disbelief among the thousands who gather here 500 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, for an annual festival that bridges sectarian and religious divides.

“Everyone comes here, even Hindus. There is no distinction here between a Shiite and a Sunni,” said the shrine’s caretaker, Syed Sadiq Shah. “God’s curse be on those who did this. They have killed innocent people.”

The explosion carved out a 2-foot deep crater and added to security fears in restive Baluchistan province, hit last week by fighting between government forces and renegade tribesmen. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Shoaib Nausherwani, Baluchistan’s home minister, said 30 people died and 20 were wounded. But today, the district chief of police, Khadim Hussain, said 46 were killed. Officials missed 11 bodies in the original count and five people injured in the blast died at the hospital, he said.

– Associated Press

OFFICIALS SET DATE FOR POST-TALIBAN ELECTIONS

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan will elect its first post-Taliban parliament on September 18, officials announced yesterday, setting a date for the country’s next major step toward democracy. With opponents of President Hamid Karzai itching for a legislative platform, the country’s election chief said he hoped the much-delayed ballot would help cement its fragile peace. After consulting Mr. Karzai’s government and political party leaders, the commission “decided to elect the National Assembly and provincial elections together on Sunday, the 18th of September,” Bismillah Bismil, head of the joint U.N.-Afghan election commission said at a news conference.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for June last year, but both were delayed because of the slow pace of preparations and efforts to disarm warlords and militia commanders who the United Nations’ feared would intimidate voters.

– Associated Press

PARENTS OF AMERICAN ACTIVIST KILLED IN GAZA SUE

In a two-pronged legal attack, the parents of a young American activist killed two years ago while trying to block the demolition of a home in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip have filed lawsuits in Seattle and Israel, seeking compensation for their daughter’s death.

The suit filed in Israeli District Court in Haifa last week seeks damages against the state of Israel, the Defense Ministry, and the Israel Defense Force, whose bulldozer crushed Rachel Corrie to death. The 23-year-old had taken time off from her studies at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., to protest the destruction of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle asserts that Caterpillar Inc. violated state and international law by selling specially designed bulldozer to the Israeli military knowing that they would be used to demolish homes and endanger civilians. The lawsuit against Caterpillar asks for compensatory damages of at least $75,000, punitive damages and other relief. The lawsuit against the Israeli government asks for $324,000 in compensatory damages and possibly other damages that, it said, would “have a deterring and education effect.”

– Los Angeles Times